Used to indicate a strong and powerful, yet corrupted and immoral place. A city in bible propecy. Some believe it may be the future fate of the United States. Prophecies:

(Revelation 14:8) A second Angel followed, calling out, "Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon ruined! She made all the nations drunk on the wine of her whoring!"

(Revelation 16:19) The Great City split three ways, the cities of the nations toppled to ruin. Great Babylon had to drink the wine of God's raging anger--God remembered to give her the cup!

(Revelation 17:5) A riddle-name was branded on her forehead: GREAT BABYLON, MOTHER OF WHORES AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

(Revelation 18:2) his voice thunderous: Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined! A ghost town for demons is all that's left! A garrison of carrion spirits, garrison of loathsome, carrion birds.

(Revelation 18:10) They'll keep their distance for fear they'll get burned, and they'll cry their lament: Doom, doom, the great city doomed! City of Babylon, strong city! In one hour it's over, your judgment come!

(Revelation 18:21) A strong Angel reached for a boulder--huge, like a millstone--and heaved it into the sea, saying, Heaved and sunk, the great city Babylon, sunk in the sea, not a sign of her ever again.

(Revelation 18:24) The only thing left of Babylon is blood-- the blood of saints and prophets, the murdered and the martyred.

"Oh, Babylon, the whole earth has drank the maddness in your wine. Now a day has come when you must pay for every crime."

First of all, you guys are all wrong, babylon does not refer the police. Babylon is a word that jamaicans use to compare their experience of being brought to the americas to the jews being brought to babylon during the babylonian captivity. Babylon refers to the place of captivity as well as the power structure that keeps them there. It can also apply to imperial powers and commercial powers such as corporations and governments.

Peter Tosh didn't want to go on tour in the US because he did not want to go into the heart of babylon.

Rastafarian word referring to The State and The System: it refers equally to the British Empire which engineered the slave trade and to the modern oppressive governments of the USA and her allies, as they are considered to be one and the same imperialist evil. It's believed that the Babylon actively seeks to exploit and oppress the people of the world, especially people of African descent. It's believed that the Babylon forbids the smoking of ganja because this sacred herb opens men's minds to the truth.
The term is a reference to the fact that in the Torah (AKA the Old Testament) the Babylonian Empire forcibly relocated the Jews from the Land of Israel to the city of Babylon, where they were forced to stay for around 50 years. This situation is seen as analogous to the forced deportation of Africans to the Americas by Europeans.